Welcome!

Welcome to the premier post of the Project Manager’s Advisor! I’ll be blogging on topics of interest to executives everywhere who are responsible for managing projects in today’s difficult economy.

Today’s topic will resonate with project managers who find themselves “without a portfolio”, so to speak.

The Brand of You

Every person in today’s market should have a brand identity. Most people have a resume or a profile on LinkedIn or Facebook. The problem, honestly, is that most of these profiles do not speak to your unique strengths and thereby don’t allow you to present a compelling story about how your strengths and experiences come together to meet a market need. Thus you need to build a brand identity called “You”.

Here are five concepts to think about when building your brand:

Whether you’re looking for a permanent full time position, or a temporary, project-oriented position, you should think of yourself as providing a unique, product, result, or service to a client (employer)

In todays market where there is an oversupply of job-seekers (service providers), the more specific you can be about what your product, service, or result is the better. Otherwise, you’re “brand” won’t stand out.

Try to resist the urge to define yourself as broadly as possible, to cast the net widely, in order to catch as many opportunities as possible. In doing so, you’re just one fish swimming in a big pond.

Use a brainstorming to list all the things that you uniquely excel at; at which your talents at least equal the best in its class. Then look at grouping them into categories and see if you see a pattern emerge. This will help you define your “brand” and narrow your service offering to those areas where you can provide world-class products, services, or results.

Often, the competitive and ambitious nature we developed over the course of our careers can work against us. We’ve fallen into the pattern of thinking that what comes easily to us is often not worth pursuing and that a meaningful job or career means a struggle to master a difficult subject or to win a coveted position out of a pool of many applicants. Unless you’re willing to make an investment by taking yourself out of the market for a period of time to redefine yourself through retraining, taking pro-bono or apprentice positions, you’re best bet is to stick with the skills you’ve already mastered.

Coming up in the next post; how to use your brand to build your Elevator Pitch.